Innovative Safety Topics

The U.S. Department of Labor reports that 3.5 million people in America are injured on the job every year. Another 13 million suffer a disabling injury while at home, according to the National Safety Council. Many of these injuries could have been avoided if proper safety standards were followed. Achieve higher standards of safety in your work or home environment by dealing with the topic of safety in an innovative way.

Make Work Safety Fun

• Engaging and entertaining employees to address safety issues is usually more effective than another droning meeting on the topic. Do what a company in Miami does and use humorous cartoon videos to relay safety messages. Follow the idea of company in Illinois and create a dynamic--and sometimes silly--live presentation to emphasize the importance of properly using safety gear. Creating interactive safety presentations can also encourage employees to voice their own safety concerns, which might reveal topics or issues you had not considered.

Safety Leadership

• Employ safety management rather than safety leadership. The former is more reactive, but the latter is pro-active and encourages employees to take responsibility for their own welfare. A panel of safety experts interviewed by EHS Today revealed that safety leadership is an effective approach. It instills safety-mindedness in employees and encourages them to address safety issues by suggesting ways to improve conditions and to support one another in creating a safe work environment.

Create Safety Habits at Home

• Safety at home is also important. Lower the risk of injuries for your family by establishing safety-oriented household habits. Talk to the family about what creates a hazard and about what circumstances can lead to an injury. Then make it everyone's responsibility to identify and address home hazards. For example, you could ask your children to do a hazard patrol once a week. They would check railings to make sure they are secure, look for tripping hazards such as loose carpets and point out any flammable liquids that have not been put away correctly. Once they report back to you, fix the hazards. Have a daily clutter cleanup to keep high-traffic areas clear and establish a household maintenance calendar so systems such as heating and electrical wiring are kept in good repair.

  Get creative to get your kids involved. If you make safety entertaining, they are more likely to listen and participate. Make up safety quizzes that can help them learn to identify hazards. Make your weekly hazard check a game to see who can locate the most items that need to be addressed, or find at least one safety hazard on your own and give a prize to whoever identifies it first.